Field of the Invention
This invention relates to digital pathology image analysis tools.
Description of the Related Art
Microscopes provide high-resolution imagery that, when digitized, often provide very large digital images. For example, typical whole slide tissue sections acquired with a 20× or 40× objective often yield image sizes of 25 k×25 k pixels or 100 k×100 k pixels, respectively. The process of running image analysis programs, such as those for pathology analysis, on these large data images, tends to consume a considerable amount of time. Depending on the sophistication of the programs, analyzing an image of a whole slide tissue section can take up to several hours.
Where a user is required to run image analysis programs, this results in a complex workflow. The user must first provide all inputs and start the execution of the program, then return later to view the results. When the user is required to interact with the image analysis programs more frequently, the resulting workflow becomes even more complex, often to the point of being impractical.
There is a need for systems and methods that can be used to build image analysis tools that provide a perceived close to real-time system response.